In what has become a bizarre sideshow to this city’s mayor’s race, one of the candidates has been sentenced to three days in jail for contempt of court.Kimberly Williamson Butler, a criminal court clerk who announced her candidacy on Friday, had defied a court order to relinquish her authority over the cleanup of a hurricane-flooded court evidence room after the state Supreme Court appointed an outside judge to the task.Butler dropped out of sight last week after being threatened with arrest, but Calvin Johnson, chief judge for state district criminal court in New Orleans, canceled the arrest warrant Friday after Butler agreed to appear in court.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

At least 15 people were killed and scores wounded in a series of explosions which hit the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi in northern India within a span of 45 minutes on Tuesday, police said. One explosion occurred in the packed Sankat Mochan temple and two blasts rocked one of the city's main railway stations, a federal interior ministry official told Reuters. "Fifteen people have died and about 60 are injured. The blasts were pretty big and I do not rule out a terrorist hand behind it," Navneet Sikera, Varanasi's police chief, told Reuters. The three explosions occurred between 6 p.m. and 6.45 p.m., police said. A bomb was also recovered from a residential area and was being defused, they added. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1696140

HE ASPIRED to be South Africa’s next leader and considered himself the rightful heir to Nelson Mandela’s legacy, a black man ready to lead his people to peace and prosperity. But yesterday Jacob Zuma stood in the dock in a Johannesburg courtroom accused of rape, his quest for the presidency apparently in ruins. As political demises go, it could hardly have been more dramatic. A hushed courtroom listened as an HIV-positive Aids activist recounted in graphic detail on the first day of his trial how she had been raped by the trusted friend of her family. Mr Zuma, 63, pleaded not guilty to the rape charges, but admitted consensual sex with the woman, who stayed the night at his house. ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2073081,00.html

A Russian proposal to allow Iran to enrich a small amount of uranium on its soil has been shot down by U.S. officials, diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency told CNN.The proposal was floated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is in Washington and is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House later Tuesday.After a meeting with his Canadian counterpart in Ottawa on Monday, Lavrov said a uranium enrichment joint venture between Iran and Russia was still on the table, but would require Tehran returning to a moratorium of its own testing, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.Moscow has offered to enrich uranium for Tehran in Russia and then ship it to Iran...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/07/iran.nuclear/index.html?section=cnn_world

A wild New Year's Eve two years ago has landed a Georgia teen in prison for 10 years on charges of child molestation in a case that has state legislators reworking the strict law that put him behind bars. Genarlow Wilson and a group of friends had the kind of bash no parent would want their teenager to attend. Crime scene investigators combing the room in a Days Inn in the small town of Douglasville, Ga., found evidence of drinking, as well as condoms and wrappers littered all over. Plus, there was a video camera. In a portion of a tape obtained by "Primetime," Wilson, then 17 and an honor student and star athlete who was homecoming king, is seen having intercourse with a 17-year-old girl, who was seen earlier on the bathroom floor. During the sex act, she appears to be sleepy or intoxicated but never asks Wilson to stop. Later on in the tape, she is seen being pulled off the bed. Other portions of the tape show a second girl, who was 15 and later said she did not drink that night. ...http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1693362&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Prosecutors in Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial sought Tuesday to unravel his claims that he knew nothing of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, arguing that al-Qaeda members are carefully scripted to lie when caught. FBI agent Michael Anticev, testifying for a second day, offered the jury a primer on al-Qaeda cover stories and the organization's techniques of deception when cell members are questioned. Moussaoui's lawyers are portraying him as a pathetic loner who dreamed of becoming a terrorist but was shut out of Sept. 11 planning and considered by one al-Qaeda leader a "cuckoo in the head." They also want to show the government knew far more about brewing al-Qaeda plots than Moussaoui did, and in that vein pressed Anticev on what the FBI was doing to follow up on warning signals before 9/11. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-07-moussaoui_x.htm?csp=34